With time running out for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to qualify for the first debate of the 2024 presidential election, the independent candidate is looking forward to securing the endorsement of a national election organization and taking to the campaign podium.
Kennedy Pushes for Debate Inclusion Amid Tight Deadline
Reuters reports that the televised campaign debate on the 27th of this month will air on CNN, which says only President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump qualify to participate in the campaign debate – meeting the constitutional requirements for the presidency; filing a formal declaration of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission; garnering a minimum of 15% support in four national polls that meet CNN’s criteria; and appearing on enough state ballots to meet the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential office with the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency.
CNN says that Kennedy has only received at least 15% of the vote in 3 independent polls so far and is eligible to be on the ballot in 6 states across the U.S., making it unlikely that he will win the presidential election.
Kennedy’s campaign, however, says that Kennedy has been placed on the ballot in 9 states across the country and has collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot in 14 other states, making it possible for him to win the election.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who has spread misinformation about the new crown vaccine and has attracted supporters on both sides of the political divide as a result. It’s unclear whether Kennedy will split more votes from Biden or Trump.
The deadline for presidential candidates to qualify for the campaign debate is this Thursday (20) at 12 a.m. EST.
Kennedy thinks the debate lacks fairness
Kennedy has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) calling the CNN debate unfair and arguing that it amounts to a ban on campaign contributions to Biden and Trump.
Kennedy previously said Biden and Trump “are trying to exclude me from their debate because they’re worried I’m going to win.” He accused Biden and Trump’s campaign of “colluding” with CNN to exclude himself, slamming the decision as “undemocratic, un-American and cowardly”. The BBC said Kennedy’s candidacy was particularly important in a race where he could take a significant portion of the vote away from the two unpopular major party candidates.
The Kennedy campaign is asking the Federal Election Commission to take action by Thursday to prevent CNN, Biden and Trump from holding a televised debate on June 27 unless they all make changes.
The Federal Election Commission declined to comment. Experts say the agency has had difficulty recently ruling on issues related to AI’s involvement in this year’s election.
A CNN spokesman said, “Relying on an application for ballot access alone does not guarantee that he (Kennedy) will be on the ballot in any state. In addition, Kennedy does not currently meet our polling criteria, which, like other objective criteria, were developed before we issued our debate invitations.”
This year’s election presents an almost unprecedented situation. Since the era of televised presidential election debates began in 1960, news organizations across the nation have never had complete control over the rules and parameters of the two debates between the candidates.
However, the initiator of this debate is Biden. The Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece on the 21st that stated that presidential debates have been a tradition for nearly four decades and that Biden proposed an early debate this year for electoral purposes. By limiting the debate to him and Trump and bypassing the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, Biden avoided Kennedy’s participation, which, if he had gotten involved, could have boosted the independent candidate’s stature and taken votes away from Biden.
Derek Muller, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School, a private college in Indiana, said the appearance of an independent candidate like Kennedy on stage could spark a more substantive debate.
In a recent Ipsos poll, about 41 percent of registered voters said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, while 39 percent chose to vote for Biden. The poll showed that 10 percent of respondents would choose to vote for Kennedy if he were on the ballot along with Trump and Biden.
Kennedy Jr.’s absence from the campaign stage would be a blow to his campaign as he tries to soak up votes from Biden and Trump. But he still has a chance to participate in the Sept. 10 debate sponsored by ABC News. That debate will have the same ballot and polling standards as CNN, but will provide Kennedy Jr. with more time to finish meeting his standards.
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